Rocks in my Head

The collar necklace, as I may have mentioned previously, is six ounces of a combination of fine, sterling, and argentium silver, along with real-deal turquoise (none of that fake stuff). The bracelet and earrings haven't been weighed yet, because the whole collection is currently at the photographer for their close up. I'm excited as to how this collection turned out, and I hope to find homes for all of them. I also intend to make more pairs of earrings because they're cool.

In addition to silver, I have a copper bracelet with the turquoise beads. This one is an experiment in symmetry, because my wire weaving work is more free form (which is a fancy way of saying I don't have a plan). I have completed it, but not photographed it yet. Here is a progress picture. The finished bracelet has patina added to it to darken it so the weave stands out more.

One thing I learned during the patination process is that since turquoise's color is caused by copper, it can be affected by the liver of sulfur I use to darken the copper wire. So the colors are a little darker for now, until I buff the surface to bring it back up. That was quite a shock when I got it out of the bowl, though. Learn something new every day! Next time I'll just paint the liver of sulfur on instead!

In other news, I just found out that I got accepted into the Winnsboro Art & Wine Festival in Winnsboro, Texas. The festival takes place November 10-11, and there will be multiple wineries there, plus artists from across the nation, including me! It's a bit early for the details, but they are forthcoming.

For those of you keeping score, Winnsboro is in northeast Texas, north of Tyler. Since it will be in mid-November, it should feel like fall and be quite nice to spend the day hanging out and visiting. The festival will be located in their downtown, and the streets will be closed to traffic. I wonder if there's any good barbecue out that way? Guess I'll find out.

In the next installment, I'll talk about the expansion of my instrument key pendant collection to include flute and oboe keys. I still need to come up with a cool name for this collection, but I'm coming up with nothing at the moment. Oh, well. One crisis at a time. Now it's off to see what on earth my cat wants that warrants all this biting.